Travel Western North Carolina

Motoring through the Mountains - 1930s: Hewitt

Swain County, N.C.
Altitude: 1,900 feet

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s the station at Hewitts (also spelled Hewitt) remained a center for mining operations. A report by Thomas G. Murdock entitled The Mining Industry in North Carolina from 1937 to 1945 (Raleigh, N.C.: Division of Mineral Resources, n.d.) noted that part of the “Murphy Marble Area” extended beyond Cherokee County into “the valley of Nantahala River in Swain County from Nantahala to Hewitts, where it pinches out.” The report also commented that:

“A narrow belt of marble and limestone parallels the Murphy Branch of the Southern Railway between Nantahala and Hewitts. During most of the period under consideration, the Nantahala Limestone and Talc Company has operated a quarry and crushing plant at Hewitts, Swain County. Limestone from this area has been used chiefly for road metal.”

“Road metal” refers to the crushed stone that was used in highways and railroad beds.